1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of reducing image noise which is likely to emerge in an image imported from a digital camera equipped with a CCD or other light sensitive device.
2. Related Art
In an image imported from a digital camera, false colors, so-called CCD noise perceived as small spots scattered in the image, which results from underexposure which may occur depending on the image capturing conditions, sometimes emerge. This CCD noise frequently emerges when a dark place is captured by using a digital camera with a low resolution.
Due to errors in quantization and reverse quantization respectively in encoding and decoding, when encoded, compressed image data on a block-by-block basis is decoded, noise such as block noise and mosquito noise may emerge, in which the former results from discontinuity along the boundary of adjacent blocks which is perceived like a mosaic appearance, and the latter is perceived like swarms of mosquitoes clustered around a contour of a character or a figure on the background of the image (hereinafter referred simply to “a contour”).
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of reducing noise in images that is capable of properly reducing CCD noise, which emerges in an image imported from a digital camera.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of reducing noise in images that is capable of properly reducing block noise and mosquito noise, as well as CCD noise, in which block noise and mosquito noise emerge in an image at the time of decoding encoded, compressed image data on a block-by-block basis, after it has been imported from a digital camera.